I may have to think about building a shunting layout in G, at some point.What I can do is take a bit of spare plastic from one of these (6!) and see what exposure to daylight UV does to it.If resistant they'd be superb in the garden.

I've been watching this progress and as you know, I'm a big admirer of your work.

Those point levers are a bit oversized for the original plan, but I agree, they'd be great out in the garden if they can stand up to the elements. That's the first time I've seen the Harry bodyshell, I have a couple of Charlie's and was planning to respray one and rename it Megan after my second daughter, (conveniently my eldest is called Charlie and loves the colour yellow,) but now I know that there is a blue one available, I'm going to have to hunt one down.

It turns out that with the double depth foam underlay, a 1" foamboard gives scale 3ft above rail height. Handy.Foil surface indents with old ball-point pen.Grey primer spray will,come next and we will see how it looks.

I wouldn't necessarily do it the way I did: you'd want track power for a start, I think?

How long do you want it to be?What's the tightest curve it would face?Do you want the engine portion to be exposed?or enclosed?or just the smokebox and chimney outside, which I think is quite cute?

The length and the curve will probably indicate the number of articulations.I used 3 of Hornby's short 4 wheel coaches because of the silly radius I'm using.An alternate would be Dapol's 57' suburban kits, already nicely in parts.

Power unit? The Lima 0-4-0 has a tiny wheelbase, or at a higher cost, the Dapol/Hornby Pug.Alternately use a BO-BO diesel for two bogie sets, providing the power and "ghost" the steam engine (probably a plastic kit Dapol pug, shortened(!?))For a shorter version it would be a scrapable bogie diesel with a self-contained power bogie such as Triang transcontinental, etc.

Apart from that all that's needed is brand new razor saw and a touch of either bravery or madness (as preferred.)

I wanted a small station building and waiting room that were not any of the well-known varieties.But if possible something with less lime and effort than building from scratch.

These in laser-cut ply seemed a good starting place: cheap enough for an experiment, anyway.

Neat enough, but my impression was that the brickwork was too crisp, though I've yet to see what running a wash of dirty cream into the grooves does for the appearance.I've used "Fleckstone" paint before to get a textured surface, and here with the windows masked off and allowing a good time to dry I do like the result.The paint is thick enough (two light sprays) that the windows are now noticeably recessed.The corners will either get quoin stones (Paper? Milliput?) or a last spray after wall assembly with the windows masked again.The roof section tiles are patterned but flat. Replacement with embossed plasticard would be a possibility, but here I worked a chamfer on each strip with a scalpel blade. The deep laser cuts made that relatively easy, but I wouldn't want to do a big roof that way. Again, I'm pretty happy with the result. Neat, but not over-neat.

Things go slowly, but I am gradually putting together the quirky locos I want for the line.

(in accord with historical practice, some earlier machines will be going back to the works for scrapping or rebuilding.)

Ever since seeing comments about "sheds on wheels" I've wanted one. Working from this phoro in particular

Not quite that far....

The body is an HO van with sliding doors with ends cut down from an ancient Triang brake van

Inside: There is room for the R/C chip on the left.

Just to see I cooked up a track power 12v version of the chassis:

With the built in brass gears in the bogie (from an Playcraft class 21) , total reduction is 1/56Add a body for the little ugly diesel of your choice.

Moving on, again a quite small loco, a double-cabbed vertical boiler, at least by outline.

Inside, the chip is low and flat enough that two full AAA batteries fit happily. The motor wires are loose as I haven't decided which was is notionally "forwards" yet.

When everything works AND fits inside the body there tends to be a pause: details, colour and couplings can come in due course. One more steam loco that I'm happy with to my latest idea of "good" and I should go back to making progress on the layout itself.That's only a couple of steps from being down to scenic work, but those couple of steps could take a while.(finish ballasting without wrecking the points, adding clear decouplers, that work, on curved track)

I want to get these two finished this weekend.Everything that shouod be tricky or nasty has been done.

Steam railmotors.

In foreground IR receiver and holder for 2 AAA batteries. Only 2 wires to solder (and resolder if running in reverse to controller.Roofs to go black to hide IR receiver,

Different take, faster build. Came from finding an old Lima 4-wheel diesel with long wheelbase which sits under a Hornby 4-wheel carriage very nicely.Model is sitting on a 10" radius curve.

Chassis *is* 4 wheel drive (earliest versions were not) with a lay shaft under the floor of the chassis.

Several possibilities occur for a "ghost" carriage, but the the drive is such that an impossible 2-2-2 chassis would be pretty easy to make with a pair of 6ft (6ft 6"?) drivers "floating" between the four actual driving wheels.

The layout has actually progressed a little. All track laid, ballasted, and the points returned to reliable operation after the ballasting.The basic scenic structure (cliff) has been worked out.Along with a back-story to cover much of the weirdness..

At the loco run-round end the line ends(?) at some closed doors in the hillside. A dock shunter sits there as it is my *widest* loco by a mm or so, and is on duty ensuring the applied cliff-face does not encroach too far.

The run-round loop passes behind the bins and van body, in front the main platform face and the bay platform.

Back to front... where the adit into the rock will be, a three-siding goods yard (2 for the mine) The branchline track curving away, and in the foreground one further siding, mainly for loco coal and water.